Uruguayan bishop challenges priests to embrace their identity

Bishop Orlando Romero Cabrera of Canelones, Uruguay has called on priests to take up the challenge of their “priestly identity” by living a “priestly spirituality that is humane and that transforms us.”

On the occasion of the Year of Priests decreed by Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop Romero sent a letter to the priests of his diocese in which he reminded them, “We are experiencing in the Church right now a time of strong calling to spirituality and conversion to a more evangelical way of life. Listening to the Word of God in the Christian community and in one’s personal life is the way in which the Spirit of God is manifest,” he said.

For this reason, Bishop Romero said there is an urgent need for “a personalized spirituality in the experiential encounter with the Lord, in the contemplation of the Word of God made flesh, assumed progressively through the methodology of Lectio divina.”

We need “a spirituality that is rooted in our human condition and that brings healing and sanctification, a priestly spirituality that makes us more humane and that transforms us,” the bishop said.